Thursday, November 28, 2013

JCOPE 7898

Not One Elected Official or Good Govt Group Has Opposed JCOPE Low Fine Against Glenwood

JCOPE’s soft slaps at Glenwood and AFP prove it’s a joke, but the real problem lies with the politicians, who make the laws to benefit themselves, take the cash – no matter how smelly – and never, ever look back

The latest explanation for New York corruption(NYP) Glenwood Management — and all the New York pols it bribed over the years — must be laughing all the way to the bank. Wednesday, the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics hit the real-estate firm with $200,000 in penalties in connection with the corruption cases against ex-legislative leaders Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos. It also slapped another firm, Administrators for the Professions, with a $70,000 fine. Glenwood isn’t likely to miss the money: It has given millions to New York pols over the years to curry favor — so what’s a couple of hundred thou more in fines? And both firms virtually admit their goal was bribery; they skirted prosecution only because they made deals to cooperate with US Attorney Preet Bharara, who brought the charges against Silver and Skelos. Glenwood hired Silver’s law firm, Goldberg &amp; Iryani, “knowing that the firm paid Speaker Silver a referral fee and that Speaker Silver performed no work in connection with the Goldberg firm’s services to Glenwood,” a JCOPE statement said. Meanwhile, Glenwood was trying to sway Silver on real-estate issues. Glenwood also pushed another firm, AB Tech Industries, to hire Skelos’ son and arranged a referral fee for him. And AFP retained his son at Skelos’ behest. Yet the deals the firms made with prosecutors mean they aren’t likely to face any new sanctions. And no one, it seems, is even looking to penalize Glenwood for the millions it showered on pretty much every major power player in Albany for years — in what was, let’s be honest, just a different form of bribery. True, those donations may have been legal under New York law. But they sure give off a foul stench, particularly in light of the Silver and Skelos convictions. The worst part: Of the pols who took those “bribes,” from Gov. Cuomo on down, practically no one will pay a price. Heck, they even refused to return the tainted cash, despite repeated calls to do so. Watchdogs often refer to JCOPE as J-JOKE because of its glaring failure to curb Albany corruption, and the soft slaps at Glenwood and AFP prove the point. But the real problem lies with the pols, who make the laws to benefit themselves, take the cash, no matter how smelly — and never, ever look back.

The Low Fine Gives Real Estate the Green Light to Continuing to Buy Support in Albany

Why Developers of Manhattan Luxury Towers Give Millionsto Upstate Candidates (Pro Publica) A first-of-its-kind analysis shows just how tactical the real-estate industry is about bankrolling state legislators who will protect its $1.4 billion tax break and weaken rent laws. n 2014, an obscure campaign in the foothills west of Albany between a sheep farmer and a home builder mushroomed into one of the most expensive State Senate elections in New York history. Each side’s supporters spent at least $3.5 million, or more than four times the cost of the average U.S. House of Representatives contest that year. The bulk of money poured in from outside the district. Labor unions and national committees for campaign finance reform backed incumbent Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk, the farmer. Some contributions to her opponent, Republican George Amedore Jr., which helped fund his television attack ads, were harder to trace. The money came from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, which collected it from limited liability companies at glamorous Manhattan addresses, including Hawthorn Park, a 339-unit luxury tower with sweeping views of the Hudson River, as well as The Fairmont, The Encore and The Pavilion — all high-end rental towers. The LLCs, in turn, were arms of Glenwood Management, a developer of upscale Manhattan residential properties, and the New York real-estate industry’s largest contributor to political campaigns. Each election cycle, millions of dollars flow to Albany from luxury residential buildings, office towers and parking garages controlled by some of New York City’s biggest tycoons. What the buildings have in common is that they’re owned by LLCs, a structure shielded from New York’s tight restrictions on corporate campaign donations. Thanks to their vast networks of such entities, developers can give virtually unlimited sums each campaign season. In one day in 2014, Glenwood funneled $450,000 in contributions to two accounts for the Senate Republican Campaign Committee through 18 separate LLCs. Exploiting the LLC loophole has been a shrewd investment for the real-estate industry.

Wrong Dicker, if you add de Blasio's Campaign for One NY PAC He Got More From the Taxpayer Subsidized Developers

Companies fined $270k in Skelos, Silver cases (LoHud) wo companies involved in the corruption cases of the state's former legislative leaders have agreed to pay $270,000 to the state to settle alleged lobbying violations. The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics on Wednesday said Glenwood Management Corp. will pay a $200,000 penalty and the Administrators for the Professions, Inc. will pay $70,000. “The lawmakers who sought to use their official positions to secure unwarranted privileges have already been punished," JCOPE executive director Seth Agata said in a statement. "The clients of lobbyists who facilitated these acts and provided those public officers with such special benefits are now facing the consequences of their actions.” Silver was convicted on charges of pocketing more than $4 million that he disguised as legal payments from law firms specializing in real estate and asbestos claims. He was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, but is free pending an appeal. In one scheme, Silver was found guilty of directing real-estate developers, including Glenwood Management, to hire Goldberg &amp; Iryami, a Manhattan law firm that provided Silver with a cut of the business. In exchange, prosecutors said Silver used his influence to benefit the developers through legislation, particularly rent-control laws in 2011. In the JCOPE settlement, the agency said Glenwood acknowledged it retained the law firm "knowing that a portion of the fees paid would be shared with Silver, who would perform no work in connection with such legal services." Glenwood, also one of the state's largest campaign contributors, was a player in the Skelos case.

Skelos and his son, Adam, were convicted of scheming to use the senator's position to get more than $300,000 in work for his son from Glenwood. In the JCOPE settlement, Glenwood admitted it violated the state's Lobbying Act by "failing to disclose activities and meetings related to lobbying Skelos" in its public-disclosure reports and for failing to submit other registration information. "Glenwood also acknowledged that it recommended to an environmental technology company that the firm hire Skelos’s son, Adam, as a consultant, and arranged for another company to pay the younger Skelos a referral fee," JCOPE said. The elder Skelos was sentenced to five years in federal prison, while Adam Skelos was hit with a 6 1/2 year prison term. They are both appealing their convictions.

Cuomo Disguising 421-a As A Tax Incentives for Poor and Working Class, Now Called AffordableNY A Housing Program That Creates Gentrification and Pushes Out the Poor, Middle Class and Increases Homelessness by Raising Rents

Cuomo offers tax incentives in new affordable housing proposal for low-income New Yorkers (NYDN) The governor said he wants to replace a program designed to create apartments for poor and working class New Yorkers. The initiative would replace the 421-a program, which expired last year, granting property tax cuts to developers who set aside subsidized affordable apartments. Cuomo said the new program will create 2,500 units per year of affordable housing and will extend the tax incentives for 40 years. “It is actually in my opinion a better program than the old 421a,” he continued. “This has increased the length of affordability to 40 years, and it’s actually made it more affordable for people to qualify.” The governor did not discuss the length of the tax exemptions, the extent of the affordability mandates or other conditions imposed as eligibility requirements under the program. “It’s important to have a program like that to encourage private development and affordable housing in New York City.”*

Daniel Horwitz, the chairman of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, has stepped down, and officials said it was not clear if acting chairman Michael Rozen would eventually be named the full-time chairman, the Times Union writes.

Not A Word Was Printed In the Daily News After the Cover-Up Fines Against the Advance Group and Council Speaker by the Ethics Committee Cover-Up of the consultant lobbyists illegal work for Mark-Viverito Speaker Race, an investigation that the Daily News Help Start

Keep those callscoming: Labeling dealings with editorial boards 'lobbying' is nuts (NYDN Ed) A classic example of lobbying: Worried about lost profits, an individual or business (for example, a landlord) hires someone who is politically connected to win amendments to a bill (for example, rent control legislation). JCOPE requires lobbyists to report their activities — serving the public good by informing citizens of efforts to influence their representative’ actions. Over time, the rules expanded dangerously by defining letter-writing campaigns as lobbying and to mandate disclosure by those behind such drives.* JCOPE has lost its constitutional bearings by puttings actions of the press under government scrutiny, and while efforts to regulate dark money in politics are appreciated, the committee has crossed the line, theTimes Union writes:

The Daily News is Silent On How the Lobbyists Shadow Govt is At the Center of Albany's Corruption, How They Snuffed Out Democracy in Elections With Their Coordination of PACs and Calls Banning Lobbyists in the Newsroom Unconstitutional, WTF

Now, ill-considered letter-of-the-law logic has led the panel into extending the definition of lobbying to include communication between paid representatives of interest groups and the media. The draft of its rule would have covered “a public relations consultant who contacts a reporter or editorial board in an attempt to get the media outlet to advance the client’s message.” This happens, oh, thousands of times a week at media organizations across the state as PR representatives offer reporters and editors information helpful to their clients. Those reporters and editors determine if the information is in any way useful.

When Will the Good Govt Groups Stop Protecting Lobbyists and Help the Voters?

Not A Word Was Printed In the Daily News After the Cover-Up Fines Against the Advance Group and Council Speaker by the Ethics Committee Cover-Up of the consultant lobbyists illegal work for Mark-Viverito Speaker Race, an investigation that the Daily News Help Start

Keep those callscoming: Labeling dealings with editorial boards 'lobbying' is nuts (NYDN Ed) A classic example of lobbying: Worried about lost profits, an individual or business (for example, a landlord) hires someone who is politically connected to win amendments to a bill (for example, rent control legislation). JCOPE requires lobbyists to report their activities — serving the public good by informing citizens of efforts to influence their representative’ actions. Over time, the rules expanded dangerously by defining letter-writing campaigns as lobbying and to mandate disclosure by those behind such drives.* JCOPE has lost its constitutional bearings by puttings actions of the press under government scrutiny, and while efforts to regulate dark money in politics are appreciated, the committee has crossed the line, theTimes Union writes:

The Daily News is Silent On How the Lobbyists Shadow Govt is At the Center of Albany's Corruption, How They Snuffed Out Democracy in Elections With Their Coordination of PACs and Calls Banning Lobbyists in the Newsroom Unconstitutional, WTF

Now, ill-considered letter-of-the-law logic has led the panel into extending the definition of lobbying to include communication between paid representatives of interest groups and the media. The draft of its rule would have covered “a public relations consultant who contacts a reporter or editorial board in an attempt to get the media outlet to advance the client’s message.” This happens, oh, thousands of times a week at media organizations across the state as PR representatives offer reporters and editors information helpful to their clients. Those reporters and editors determine if the information is in any way useful.

When Will the Good Govt Groups Stop Protecting Lobbyists and Help the Voters?

Now Lobbyists At the Center of Albany Corruption Wrap Themselves in First Amendment

An ‘ethics’ assault on the First Amendment(NYP Ed) The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics just passed an absurd rule ordering anyone paid to talk to editorial boards about public issues to register in Albany as a lobbyist. “Any attempt by a consultant to induce a third-party — whether the public or the press — to deliver the client’s lobbying message to a public official would constitute lobbying,” says the new JCOPE rule. Specifically, a consultant “who contacts a media outlet in an attempt to get it to advance the client’s message in an editorial would also be delivering a message,” even if indirectly. JCOPE boss Daniel Horwitz calls this “reasonable regulation of speech.”

Freedom of speech is the heart of democracy — and it’s protected by the Constitution. That’s why even left-leaning civil-rights groups, like the New York Civil Liberties Union, are livid. “Requiring someone to report every conversation with an editorial writer is intimidating to both journalists and advocates,” says NYCLU head Donna Lieberman.

Ethics RegulatorsExpand Lobbying Definition To Include Consultants (YNN) Ethics and lobbying regulators on Tuesday approved an advisory opinion that would broaden the definition of lobbying to include paid political consultants and public relations firms. The rule, in some cases, could include when those PR teams contact the media in order to influence the direction of coverage. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics approved the opinion in order to address what has become an increasingly hazy distinction between registered lobbyists and those who are hired as consultants who do not — technically speaking — lobby state officials directly. One provision of the opinion includes having PR consultants reveal how much they are being paid by clients the proposed laws they are pushing whenever they reach out to a media outlet when it comes to a “client’s message in an editorial.” Broadly, the opinion addresses what has increasingly come to be considered a “shadow government” in which consultants provide contact for their clients to speak with government and elected officials or in some cases reporters. The consultants themselves do not directly lobby state officials *

JCOPE adopted a pair of controversial advisory opinions intended to tighten fund-raising restrictions for New York’s highest-ranking elected officials, and widening disclosure requirements for public-relations consultants, including for activities like soliciting editorials from news organizations. * Opponents said the measure would force public relations consultants to divulge their interactions with reporters who are gathering news. JCOPE Chairman Dan Horwitz countered that the rule would only require a consultant to report his or her general activity in trying to influence public policy by meeting with newspaper editorial boards. * After Cuomo’s deal with de Blasio to pump a total of $8.3 billion in state money towards the MTA’s five-year capital program, the governor’s budget proposal only included an IOU. Transit groups rallied at the TransitMuseum yesterday to criticize the budget maneuver.* State Ethics Commission Votes on New Regulations that Redefine Work of Many Public Relations Firms as Lobbying (NY1)

Not A Word Was Printed In the Daily News After the Cover-Up Fines Against the Advance Group and Council Speaker by the Ethics Committee Cover-Up of the consultant lobbyists illegal work for Mark-Viverito Speaker Race, an investigation that the Daily News Help Start

Keep those callscoming: Labeling dealings with editorial boards 'lobbying' is nuts (NYDN Ed) A classic example of lobbying: Worried about lost profits, an individual or business (for example, a landlord) hires someone who is politically connected to win amendments to a bill (for example, rent control legislation). JCOPE requires lobbyists to report their activities — serving the public good by informing citizens of efforts to influence their representative’ actions. Over time, the rules expanded dangerously by defining letter-writing campaigns as lobbying and to mandate disclosure by those behind such drives.* JCOPE has lost its constitutional bearings by puttings actions of the press under government scrutiny, and while efforts to regulate dark money in politics are appreciated, the committee has crossed the line, theTimes Union writes:

The Daily News is Silent On How the Lobbyists Shadow Govt is At the Center of Albany's Corruption, How They Snuffed Out Democracy in Elections With Their Coordination of PACs and Calls Banning Lobbyists in the Newsroom Unconstitutional, WTF

Now, ill-considered letter-of-the-law logic has led the panel into extending the definition of lobbying to include communication between paid representatives of interest groups and the media. The draft of its rule would have covered “a public relations consultant who contacts a reporter or editorial board in an attempt to get the media outlet to advance the client’s message.” This happens, oh, thousands of times a week at media organizations across the state as PR representatives offer reporters and editors information helpful to their clients. Those reporters and editors determine if the information is in any way useful.

When Will the Good Govt Groups Stop Protecting Lobbyists and Help the Voters?

Silver Still Controls JCOPEAssembly Speaker Sheldon Silver wasted
no time in replacing JCOPE member Pat Bulgaro, naming former Surrogate
Court Judge Renee Roth to the state ethics commission, the Times Union writes:

A California-based group filed a complaint
with JCOPE over Cuomo’s decision to name Google’s executive chairman
Eric Schmidt to a panel that will recommend ways to spend $2 billion on
school technology upgrades.